Calendar

Supplements to 5k and 10k Training

Effort-Energy Log

The effort-energy training log will enable you to record the fundamental experiential data of a workout so you can track your progress from week to week during a training period. Please refer to chapter nine in my book, 5K and 10K Training for instructions on filling out the log and ways to measure your proficiency. The book will give you a thorough grounding in the concepts of effort and energy, and the advanced articles at this website will serve as a basic introduction to those ideas.

Download Effort-Energy Log PDF file

Mileage Chart

Tracking mileage is one of the time-honored ways to determine how well you are running. The mileage chart shown here enables you to graph your weekly mileage during a training period and within a program year. If you keep the mileage form at the back of your training log, you can conveniently enter your mileage at the completion of a training week. It only takes a moment to update the chart and, since it is a graphic representation of your mileage, you can see how one week relates to others during a training period.

Download Mileage Chart PDF file

8 Week Visual Log

Effort and energy are the fundamental building blocks of adaptation. You may find it useful to track your effort and energy in a visual format, drawing circles and curves on the blank form given here in PDF format.

I use a simple plastic ruler as a template for drawing circles on the form, with the smallest circles representing very easy workouts, and increasingly larger circles representing the other workout effort levels. My training log tells me how hard each race or workout was, so I read the log and draw in the circles in the appropriate timeslots on the form. Then I draw in energy curves according to the level of workout energy I recorded in my log, using the workout energy scale on the form as a guide for the height of the curves.

With eight weeks of training represented graphically on a single page, it’s easy to see trends developing. Lots of large effort circles in a short timeframe, for instance, lead to lower-level energy curves. In fact, lots of effort circles of any size can lead to lower-level energy curves. This isn’t rocket science, especially in this visual medium. Overtraining leads to exhaustion; it’s as simple as that. But seeing it in graphic form can have a powerful effect on one’s way of thinking. We’re apt to say, “Oh, too much effort does have a negative effect on my energy.”